RWBY's Trials
by Kyber589
Summary: The RWBY team and company must face numerous trials as they struggle to maintain the fragile peace in the world of Remnant.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

"DENRICK, DENRICK GET UP!" Cinder yelled. Denrick looked around the forest to see what used to be his friends dead on the ground in puddles of crimson. The few that were still alive were trying to fend off the Grimm that attacked them but it was a losing battle. Denrick sat up only to find a sharp pain in his gut where a Ursa slashed him. Cinder helped Denrick to his feet and the two ran as fast as they could. Denrick tried not look back as he heard the last of his friends being devoured by the Ursa and Deathstalkers that has ambushed them.

"Cinder? We just..." Denrick was beginning to lose the ability to remain awake

"I know I know we left them, if we had stayed we would be dead too" Cinder was crying but she had to get Denrick to a medical examiner.

"Drop me and run then, I can hear them getting closer and you can out run them if you let me hold them off."

"You'd die though"

"JUST DROP ME AND RUN" Denrick pushed himself off Cinder and shoved her foreword. Cinder looked back with a tear in her and continued running as fast as she could. Denrick looked back at the onslaught of Grimm heading his way. The last thing Cinder heard before reaching the academy walls was the collective roar of the creatures she had fled from.

Chapter 1: Into the Forest

The RWBY team and team JNPR were sitting at one of the lunch tables discussing the game they were going to play once the school day ended. They were going to venture into the forests and have a nice friendly game of capture the flag with some other students and some of their friends. Yang and Nora had been designated as game planners and team captains for the game and the two were just giddy about it. Weiss would have stated that the two were so caught up that they had been ignoring all of their classes and missing homework just to plan the game although they rarely paid attention in class in the first person and relied on their teams to fill them in on the days lessons.

"I admit I'm excited for the game but don't you two think it would be more beneficial if you actually tried to pass these classes first?" Blake asked more to Yang than Nora.

"Blake you of all people know that I can't pay attention in class when a bug flying around the window is more entertaining than most of these teachers lectures." Yang retorted with a smirk. Blake rolled her eyes but knew what Yang had said was the truth. the lectures were quite boring at times. Perhaps this game would be just what the two teams needed to unwind for the first time in forever. Both teams knew that between classes and having to worry about what Roman and the White Fang were up to they had been ignoring the fact that they need to rest.

"I CAN'T WAIT!" Ruby exclaimed with enough enthusiasm to fill a entire carnivals worth of people.

The rest of the day went by uneventful prompting Yang to pay even less attention than usual. When the final class was released the two teams rushed to their dorm rooms to change into their regular attire and then quickly rushed to the forest. Yang and Nora had hidden both their flags in the early morning so all that was left was to hand everyone their game rifles and game equipment which consisted of a chest piece that would inject each player with a numbing liquid that would cause them to be down for ten minutes or until a medic revived them.

"Alright everyone settle down, time to begin" Yang stated with a wave of enthusiasm.

"First order of business is to pick teams, as you know Nora and I are the team leaders so we picked our teams accordingly. First on my team, Blake, Ren, Ruby, and Neptune. Nora's team consists of Phyrra, Sun, Weiss, Juane, and Velvet. The two medics are Juane and Ruby, with all of that out of the way let's begin shall we?" Yang asked as she turned and disappeared into the woods followed by everyone else. After a few minutes of preparation, Nora fired the starting gun signaling the games start. Yang could only smile in victory, her plan was foolproof and she knew it.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: No more games

Blake had been sneaking through the trees with her pistol rather than her rifle. She wanted to be silent and quick and trying to maneuver the rifle through the tree branches would just slow her down, but that also meant decreasing her range and accuracy should she actually find someone. The forest was huge and the odds of running into a scout was highly unlikely due to the fact that Yang and Nora prefer a more direct approach. Blake continued to jump from tree to tree until she heard talking not far away.

"Jaune try not to be so loud when you walk" Pyrrha said as she and Jaune walked out into Blake's view. The two were carrying rifles and didn't seem to be paying much attention to the trees nearly as much as directly in front of them. Blake smirked and aimed her pistol at Jaune's head and fired. Jaune's rifle hit the ground with a thud with Jaune following soon after. Pyrrah spun around but was too late. Blake had fired three more shots, two of which hit Pyrrah in the chest and caused her to fall to the ground with a look of surprise. Blake jumped down from the try and smirked.

"Have fun together love birds" Blake chuckled out before running back out into the forest to hunt for the flag. Blake had been walking for what seemed like hours before she heard more talking nearby. Blake quickly hit the floor and slowly crawled to a more covered location so she could listen in. Blake couldn't make out the words in the conversation but she could tell that Nora was talking to the other members of her team. Blake also managed to piece together that Jaune and Pyrrah had unfrozen and warned Nora that Blake was coming. Blake began slowly backing away when an explosion erupted from the city. Blake jumped up and looked at Nora and the two nodded at each other before running back to the school entrance where the game started. After a short while everyone had arrived.

"What the hell was that?" Nora asked to no one in particular. Yang shrugged and loaded her shotgun gauntlets and began walking towards the smoke.

"Yang where are you going?" Ruby called out before chasing after her sister.

"Relax sis I'm just going to see what happened down there, that's all." Yang replied with a smirk. No one else wanted to go but they just couldn't hold back their curiosity and followed Yang. Weiss was hanging around the back and was the last one to see the pile of burning rubble that was once a movie store.

"Oh my god...I hope no one got hurt" Weiss said staring at the flickering flames.

"I hope so too ice queen" Sun said trying to keep the situation positive. The group watched the flames for a little while longer before deciding to continue the game later. RWBY, JNPR, and Velvet walked back to the school in silence until they reached their dorms. Ruby decided she wanted to go talk with Velvet for a bit longer and Weiss needed to go study leaving Yang and Blake alone.

"Well Blake looks like we're all alone again" Yang said with a smile. The two had been dating for a few weeks now and Blake still acted shy about it even when the two were alone. The relationship was kept secret so that Blake could have some time to adjust but Yang could feel her discomfort about the whole thing. Yang had been helping Blake out with her shyness but she still had a lot of work to do before Blake would allow Yang to make the relationship public. Now that's not to say that Blake shied away from Yang all the time, quite the contrary. Blake gladly expressed her love for Yang in private and every once in a while did something public even if it was so small as simple hand holding.

"Yeah I guess we are. Hey Yang...would you mind...giving me a massage? My backs killing me." Blake asked with a slight blush. Blake yelped however when Yang pulled Blake down and began pressing and rubbing her shoulders. Yang was more than happy to do these things for Blake whenever she could, every little bit helped her get one step closer to pulling Blake out of her shell and into the comfortable area of their relationship but for now, Yang would stick with the small stuff. Blake was beginning to relax almost instantly causing her to let out a purr. Blake would normally have immediately cut herself off but being alone with Yang was one of the few cases she would let her purrs and meows out. Yang always loved hearing her girlfriend purr...it filled her with a sense of accomplishment whenever she managed to work one out. The two stayed like this for a while longer until Yang's hands began to cramp up causing her to stop. The two looked at each other with love struck eyes and cuddled in the bed. Blake and Yang fell asleep together only to be woken up at 2:43 in the morning by Ruby.

"Uh sis why are you sleeping in Blake's bed?" Ruby asked innocently enough.

"I was having a really bad dream and Blake let me cuddle with her to make me feel better" Yang lied but Ruby bought it.

"Ruby why are you up at this hour though?" Blake asked as her eyes narrowed.

"Well um...Weiss hasn't come back yet" Ruby said causing Yang and Blake to shoot out of bed in surprise

"Where is she?" The two asked in unison.

"I don't know guys I really don't, but I wanted to see if you guys would help me find her" Ruby said desperately. Yang and Blake exchanged glances and nodded and soon the three were wandering the school halls together trying to find any sign of their missing team mate. Eventually the three found themselves in the library searching through the aisles and tables scattered throughout the room.

"Guys I think I found something" Blake called out as she read the note on the table. Yang and Ruby quickly ran over to see the note giving a detailed description of where it wanted the reader to go.

"Weiss wouldn't be so careless as to follow a random notes order right?" Ruby asked hoping that her thoughts were wrong.

"Only one way to find out" Yang replied and began to walk out the door and follow the letters instructions. The three followed it's detailed map to an old abandoned building that reeked of something foul.

"The letter leads in their" Blake said as she drew Gambol Shroud. The three gulped and entered the dark building, unknowing of the horrors laying within.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Confessions

The three walked slowly through the building which was revealed to be a five story office but the top three floors had caved in leaving most of the upper levels in rubble. Blake was leading the team with Yang covering their back and Ruby in the middle. The three ventured further into the building that was growing darker and darker with each step soon leaving the group in pitch black darkness with nothing but Blake's scroll to light the way. Blake normally wouldn't have used her scroll due to the fact she had near perfect night vision but she needed to consider the other two that were not so lucky or unlucky depending on your standpoint with fauna.

"Hey I think I see a staircase over there to your left Blake" Ruby said interrupting Blake's train of thought.

Blake nodded as she saw the stairs that only led down to the basement "Good job Ruby, although I don't think it would be a good idea to go down there" Blake replied with narrowed eyes. If Weiss were kidnapped then the basement would be the ideal place to take her with the majority of the upper levels in rubble. On the other hand if one were to somehow maneuver through the rubble then they could very easily find a concealed place to set up camp.

"How about we split up, I'll take the upper floors and you two can take the basement?" Blake asked the other two. It took a while for the two to respond but they reluctantly agreed and treaded deep into the basement with nothing but Blake's scroll to light the way. Blake meanwhile, ascended the upper floors and began climbing through the rubble. While this task would be difficult for most, Blake's agility and free run skills allowed her to scour the rubble with a bit of ease. As Blake approached the top floor she was beginning to doubt her decision and join Ruby and Yang in the basement when she heard a loud _BANG_ coming from the exact same basement. Blake decided she didn't have time to try and reclimb all the rubble so she instead look out the window and jumped to a nearby building and began descending. Blake quickly ran back to the staircase leading to the basement and pulled her weapon only to see Ruby lying against the wall and Yang attempting to revive a downed Weiss.

"Yang what happened?" Blake asked noticing the three figures all tied together in a corner.

"Some guys lured Weiss here and tried to lure us as well but we kicked their ass and called the cops. Ruby was thrown into the wall and Weiss wasn't breathing when we got here but I think I fixed what was wrong, I mean she's breathing now but she still won't wake up. Here help me carry Ruby and Weiss back to beacon." Yang said as she lifted Weiss over her shoulder. Blake nodded and lifted Ruby up. The two began walking back outside and soon the cops arrived on scene and took the men in for questioning. Yang and Blake were already gone but made sure that they left enough evidence for the men to be convicted and began talking.

"So Blake, any idea when the next test in Port's class is?" Yang asked trying to start conversation.

"I think it's in three days, did you study this time Yang?" Blake asked with a small smirk.

"Of course I did Blake don't be silly." Yang lied behind a fake smile.

"Yang what am I going to do with you? You need to study if you're going to pass these classes." Blake groaned out.

"You could let me take you to dinner." Yang mumbled under her breathe.

"What was that?" Blake asked trying to see if Yang actually said what she thought she said

"Oh oh no its nothing its nothing heh heh." Yang stuttered out nervously.

Blake narrowed her eyes and stopped dead in her tracks. "Yang what did you say?" Yang sighed and looked at the ground with a blush.

"Would be...go on a date with me?" Yang asked sheepishly. Blake was taken back a bit by the request and couldn't speak. Yang looked at her feet embarrassed and ashamed. Yang was about to turn away when she felt Blake kiss her on the cheek.

"Uh sure...I would love to." Blake choked out with a large blush. Yang was overjoyed and was about to hug Blake when she remembered Weiss.

"We should get back to the school huh?" Yang asked with a eager look.

"Ah yes that does seem the best thing to do at the moment." Blake replied, none of the blush had left her face yet. The two took the long walk back to the school and dropped Weiss and Ruby off at the nurse station before heading back to the dorm.

"Hey Yang"

"Yeah Blake?"

"I want to tell you, that I've had a crush on you since the first week I met you." Blake stated with hints of embarrassment.

"Blake, I've had this crush on you since we first met in the forest on initiation day." Yang replied. The two stood awkwardly for a few minutes before embracing each other and falling onto Blake's bed with a kiss. The two remained like that for hours on end until sleep overtook the two love birds and they rested in a warm cuddle.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: A Ghost Returns

The next day Yang and Blake met their team outside the infirmary and the four decided that today was a day for relaxing in their dorm. As they walked back Weiss noticed Blake and Yang were holding hands the entire way back to the dorm room door. Weiss was about to speak up about it when Yang beat her to it.

"So why did you decide to follow a random letter that mysteriously appeared on your bed Weiss?" Yang asked much to the disapproval of the girl in question. Weiss glared at Yang but noticed the way Blake and Ruby were looking at her. The young heiress sighed and began to explain

"The letter detailed that the same people that destroyed that movie store wanted to talk to me, they threatened to kill more people if I refused to go alone, when I arrived I was ambushed by several fauna criminals. They hit me over the head and when I woke up I was laying on a medical bed." Weiss stated as she sat down on her bed. Blake sighed and collapsed on her bed knowing this incident wouldn't help Weiss's viewpoint on fauna. Yang was laying on her bed staying quiet for once and Ruby was sitting at the desk taking in all Weiss had just said.

"Do you think it could have been a White Fang assassination attempt?" Ruby asked trying to make sense of all the information she just received.

Weiss shook her head. "I don't think so, none of them were in a uniform and no one else came to help them when Yang and Blake arrived.

"No one" Blake confirmed. "Three men in the basement and two asleep upstairs." The four girls looked at each other in silence as they wondered what could possibly be going on.

"Don't let up your attacks, we can do this"

"They just keep coming. I'm running out of ammo over here"

"They killed Josh already! We don't stand a chance!"

"Cinder get out of here!" Denrick yelled above the rest. Cinder was watching in horror as her friends fought for their lives against a horde of the monsters that had attacked them. Cinder turned her head to see Denrick decapitate an Ursa and shoot three beowolves before rushing to Cinder's location. "Cinder come on, get up and get moving. I'll cover your escape" Denrick said. Cinder stood up and turned just in time to see one of her best friends get ripped in half by a deathstalker. Only Denrick, Cinder herself, and three others remained out of the ten that ventured out into these woods. The five turned to run when a Ursa slashed Denrick through the chest. Cinder rushed over to Denrick and quickly killed the Ursa with her sword.

'DENRICK, DENRICK GET UP!" Cinder yelled as she watched another one of her friends fall to the floor in a pool of blood. Cinder helped Denrick to his feet and the two ran through the woods. She looked back at the last moment only to see her friends reaching out to her before dying.

Cinder woke up in her bed sweating and panting. These dreams had been plaguing Cinder for years. Every day she went through the scene in her head and tried to think of a way she could have saved her friends, a way she could have saved Denrick. The young woman sighed as she got up and got dressed. Cinder hated the beds at this school, They were too small and they provided no comfort what so ever. Cinder walked outside the school and stared at the moon. It was still very dark outside and a cool breeze was in the air suggesting the time was around midnight still. She sat down on one of the benches and looked out into the star filled sky.

"If you can hear me, I'm sorry Denrick. I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have backed down like that. If I had stayed by your side you might still be alive and we could be out there in the wild. We could have explored the world just like you always wanted." Cinder stated, hoping that no one would overhear her little speech. She looked at her watch and groaned. Morning was still hours away and she needed to investigate the rumors she had been hearing about several nests of grimm mysteriously being completely wiped out. She walked back to her temporary bed and tried her best to go back to sleep for a few hours.

The entire school was awoken by the sound of a large number of airships flying overhead. Most of the students and teachers rushed outside to witness over thirteen drop ships flying over the city heading for one of the mountains outside the city limits. The sight was available for about six minutes before the last of the drop ships disappeared behind the mountains as small little specks in the distance. Several students pointed at the military base where several air units were being prepped for launch. After a few minutes the air ships took off in the direction of the unknown drop ships.

"What was that all about?" Ruby asked aloud to no one in particular. Yang simply shrugged as she watched Ironwood's ships disappear over the same mountains as the drop ships.

"All this is just getting stranger and stranger" Blake commented as the others nodded in agreement. None of them noticed the woman in the red dress sneak away from the main group and head towards the outskirts of the city.

Cinder had moved quickly so that she could reach one of the warehouses. She opened the doors and stepped back a few steps to admire the contents of what lay inside. The jet black stealth plane that sat before Cinder was one of the newer designs the military were using. Stolen from Ironwood this plane was built to fly higher than most other means of air travel and had a built in long range camera. Cinder climbed in and flew off into the clouds. The plane's engines were dead silent after takeoff allowing Cinder to reach the clouds without being seen.

When Cinder arrived to the mountains that the drop ships disappeared over, she activated the long range camera and thermal sensors and began looking around the surface for any trace of what those drop ships were doing and who was flying them. Nothing was showing up on her scanners and she knew she would be here for a while.

It had been several hours since Cinder began her search and nothing was showing up. Cinder was tapping her fingers impatiently as she checked her fuel meter. She had enough to stay for another hour or two before she would need to retreat back to the warehouse and refuel. Cinder cursed and slammed her fist into the window of the cockpit although not very hard as she didn't want to chance a crack. She sat back and sighed when her scanners caught several blimps on the motion tracker. Ironwood's troops had already fallen back by now so Cinder knew that these must be the owners of those drop ships that flew across the sky earlier. Cinder grinned as she flew above the drop ships, following them to where they originated from. Cinder followed them until the drop ships flew into the mouth of a large cave and disappeared. She raised an eyebrow and landed her stealth plane on a Cliffside near the cave and proceeded to make her way to the cave entrance. When she finally arrived, she took a look inside and what she saw made her mouth drop.

Inside the cave was a large hanger complex filled with several drop ships designed to quickly fly in, land, pick people up or drop them off, and fly out immediately. Cinder made her way further into the cave system and came across a tunnel complex which she decided to follow. When she arrived at the tunnel exit she saw that a large hole had formed in the ceiling of the cave casting sunlight on the buildings that lay before her. The village was as large as a small city with the highest building only having about ten stories. The city was surrounded by large metal walls undoubtedly meant to keep any underground monsters away. She saw that she was close to what seemed to be the back edge of the city as the main gate she saw was at the other end of the wall. The building closest to her was the ten story building that was large enough to hold at least two thousand people. Cinder was about to go back and return to Vale when she heard two gun clicks behind her.

"Hey there lady, don't think I've ever seen you in town. What are you doing back here huh? Spying for a future attack? Well I ain't going to let that happen so put your hands above your head and walk forward, let's see what the boss has to say about this." Cinder heard behind her. She growled a bit but knew she could never draw her weapons or dodge her captor faster than a man could a pull a trigger and shoot her. Cinder raised her hands above her head and saw one of her captors attire. The man wore pure black jeans with a matching jacket, ski mask, and black tinted goggles, his hands were covered by black fingerless gloves and he wore a set of black combat boots. The other guard she saw was wearing the same attire as he placed a bracelet on her wrist.

"That my friend is a dust inhibitor, if you're a dust user well then you'll find it difficult to do anything other create a few small colorful sparks" One of the guards said to her before shoving her forward. Cinder was lead into the building and through a series of hallways until she was halted before a large steel door. one of the guards entered a code in on a keypad and the door slid open revealing a small office. At the desk sat a man wearing similar attire to the guards except he wore a black trench coat with a hood that covered his forehead, eyes and nose. His face was covered by a ski mask that had white fangs sewed on. The man waved a hand dismissing the guards and looked up at Cinder. The two guards walked out of the room just as the man began to speak.

"Hello, my name is Hawk...and you are trespassing on my territory. Who are you and what do you want?" The man asked. Cinder tried to see if she could get anything off his body language but every patch of skin was covered in black clothing.

"My name is Cinder Fall and I was simply investigating as to why your drop ships were flying over the city earlier today." Cinder replied in a confident tone. To Cinder's discomfort the man simply stared at her for a few minutes.

"D-did you say your name was.." The man drifted off a bit. Cinder looked a little worried now.

"Yes my name is Cinder Fall. Why, is there a problem?" Cinder asked in a shaky voice now. This man was clearly interested in her now and she didn't know anything about him although something kept striking her as familiar.

"Cinder, it's really you isn't it?" The man replied. "All this time and here you are again, I thought I would never see you again"

"Wait?" Cinder asked. "Is it really? No, no this can't be possible you're...Denrick?!"

The man stood up slowly "Cinder...it really is you." Hawk replied. Hawk removed his mask and hood revealing his long black hair that covered one of his blue eyes. His hair only went to his neck but it covered his ears and his left eye allowing cinder to see the scar across his right cheek. Tears formed in Cinder's eyes.

"You died, you died back in the forest all those years ago I saw it" Cinder choked out. Denrick smiled at her and walked over to her and hugged her. Cinder gladly accepted the hug and sobbed on Denrick's shoulder. She had a lot of questions on her mind but for now, simply seeing her old friend made her feel truly happy in her heart.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Live Fire

It was just a dream, just a stupid dream that didn't matter in the slightest. Those were the thoughts that were constantly going through Ruby's mind as she lay awake in the middle of the night. It wasn't a dream in any sense now that she thought about it, it was a nightmare. The same nightmare she had last night and the night before that and the night before that. The one where she was alone, the one where she killed her team. It had suddenly shown up for no reason at all, Ruby wasn't worried about her team and she was as stress free as ever but every night she would wake up panting having to check the rest of the beds in the room to assure herself her team was still there. She thought about telling her sister or her friends but she was worried they wouldn't understand, she feared that they would assume her some sort of freak with a thirst for blood and begin avoiding her. Ruby sighed as she pushed these depressing thoughts from her head and rolled over on her bed to try and sleep through the rest of the night.

Ruby never noticed that every time she woke up Blake would always look at her with a worried expression. The young fauna didn't mean to come off as creepy but she couldn't help it. Blake was a light sleeper and every time Ruby woke up she would pant loudly for a few minutes and wake Blake up. Blake didn't know why Ruby always woke up but noticed that it was always around the same time every night. Blake also noted that Ruby would also wake two more times throughout the night at the same time intervals, needless to say she didn't think it was a coincidence. Blake couldn't really wonder about to much however as class work kept her busy and with Ruby always waking her up she was losing sleep. For the last few days she would always nod off in class and having to rely on Yang and Weiss to take notes for her which was unfair to her team. She knew she needed to get to the bottom of these night terrors as fast as she could before things got really out of hand. Blake sighed and rolled over to bury her face back into Yang's neck before falling back into slumber.

Cinder was sitting across from Denrick with her arms and legs crossed as she spoke.

"So what happened that night? Why didn't you come back if you survived?" Cinder asked as a few tears rolled down her cheek.

Denrick sighed as he started to explain.

_11 years ago_

Denrick pushed himself against the base of the tree as he watched Cinder disappear into the distance. The wounded young man couldn't help but chuckle as his attackers moved towards him in a slow manner as if rubbing in his defeat. Denrick reached into his coat with a smirk as he pulled out a grenade. The Grimm froze upon seeing the grenade and waited for Denrick's next move.

"Ha Ha Ha Ha. What's wrong you stupid monsters? Afraid of a little human with a grenade? You all had no problems lunging onto a sword and end up without a head but now that I have a grenade you suddenly fear death?" Denrick taunted as he reached back into his coat. "Fine then...I'll just pull out my lucky pistol and take potshots until you worthless creatures grow a spine and give me the release of my current pain. Did you all know these bullets are explosive rounds? Well instead of shrapnel I had these little rounds set to explode and release a toxin that has been proven to overload your nerves? The toxin will kill you but not before filling your entire worthless body with the pain you just put me in times ten!". With that Denrick pulled out the pistol and opened fire. Every shot that managed to pierce the armor of the monsters he faced filled them with pain causing them to fall to the floor howling. Denrick made it a point to make sure that the shots wouldn't kill the creatures, rather he watched as he filled each creature his gun fired at with immense pain and agony.

At this point the Grimm charged Denrick in hopes to kill him before they suffered from a similar agonizing death. Denrick chuckled as he pulled the pin to the grenade and shoved it into the mouth of an Ursa that tried to bite him. The Ursa received a powerful kick to the cut causing it to stagger back and explode from the inside allowing Denrick to remain alive. Denrick's eyes filled with hope as he saw the Grimm numbers dimming when he heard the loud caw of a Nevermore. All sense of hope the young man had quickly melted away, while his aura had healed him enough to move he was in no condition to evade or combat even a deathstalker let alone the armored Nevermore that flew above him. Denrick checked his pistols clip and found three bullets, or in his mind three chances to end his life. The gun was pressed against his head with his finger set to pull the trigger when he saw gunfire erupt from the trees and gun down the bird that he had dreaded seconds ago. Denrick looked into the clearing to see a small jeep with a machinegun mounted on the back pull up and pull him inside. Denrick didn't even try to make out what his saviors were saying, his mind was to cloudy and sleep sounded so good. Denrick faded into unconsciousness and when he awoke he was in a medical bay, alone. He had no idea where he was but he knew he wouldn't be leaving for a while.

_Present day_

"I tried to return but for intended purposes I was a prisoner. They used me to help them get them weapons and supplies for this underground city. Eventually they allowed me to join their guard force where I rose through the ranks. Then the Grimm attacked the city, many people died including the leaders of the city, I was the only one with true experience thanks to my time within the kingdoms and was elected leader. I intended to return but I couldn't leave these people to fend for themselves, so I trained them...made them better and rebuilt the city. I was still stuck here however and was unable to go looking for you, but you came to me in the end." Denrick finished with a smile. Cinder had more tears in her eyes as she stood up and slapped him causing Denrick to let out a small sigh of pain.

"That was for leaving me alone for eleven years." Cinder stated with cold eyes. She remained like that for several minutes before pulling Denrick into a kiss. "And that's for not dying in the forest".

**Hey Guys, I was wondering if you all wanted to be involved in this story so I'm going to give you guys a say. One of these things will appear in the story and popular vote might persuade which one occurs.**

**A: Main character death later on****  
****B: Cinder turns good and a new, darker villain rises from the ash****  
****C: Someone in Beacon turns evil**

**leave your vote in the review section.**


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